Hurricane Sally has reached the southern United States. Since this morning, the storm has been sweeping over the urban areas of Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola in Florida, which together have a population of nearly 1 million.
Because the storm moves very slowly, at a speed of barely 5 kilometers per hour, rain showers linger over the same area for a long time. This causes major flooding.
According to the deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, it’s rare for a hurricane to move so slowly. Sally is a second category hurricane; In the eye, the wind reaches speeds of almost 170 km per hour.
Fleeing into a tree
Houses are flooded and people have become trapped by the water. Rescue workers have already rescued dozens of people, including a family of four who got to safety in a tree. A number of people could not reach the rescue services because of the high water, but the residents would be safe in their own homes. They are collected as soon as the water recedes.
Bridge collapsed
Local authorities fear that thousands of people will have to flee the water in the coming days. Entire villages must be evacuated, they think. More than a meter of rain has fallen in some regions.
As a result of the storm, part of a bridge in a major connecting road, the Three Mile Bridge over Pensacola Bay, has collapsed. About half a million households and companies are also without electricity.
Stormseizoen
President Trump has already declared a state of emergency for Louisiana and Mississippi before the storm made landfall.
Above the Atlantic Ocean now rages five tropical storms at the same time. Sally is the second hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast in the southern US in three weeks. There have been so many hurricanes this hurricane season that the authorities almost through the names while the season will last about two and a half months.
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